MORRIS DAVID BROUGH PERT 1947 - 2010
Here we gather the reaction worldwide to the passing of Morris
Morris's fellow band member in Brand X Percy Jones
I have some very strong memories of playing and hanging out with Morris back in the late 70's, during our years with Brand X. He was bought into the band at the suggestion of Robin Lumley, who had used him on some sessions that he had produced. My first impression was of all the paraphernalia that composed his percussion gear. There were the usual recognizable cymbals and gongs etc, but also other gadgets that I had no idea could be used to make any kind of musical sound. It was only when I heard him playing that I got a handle on what all this stuff sounded like.
He had a tremendous amount of energy, I think he was interesting to watch as well as to listen to from a Punter's prospective. One article in the Melody Maker described him as being like a "Yettie on speed", no doubt because of the energy level and his unusual clothing. I was always hemmed in between his percussion rack and the Drummer, sometimes Morris would do a fast roll on the back of my head, so I knew things were getting hot at that point.
We did numerous US tours together. One time, we were on a long drive to the West Coast through the desert. We realized it was Morris's birthday, we were either in Utah or Nevada, I can't remember which, but it was desert for miles. We managed to find a bar in the middle of nowhere and stopped to celebrate. We managed to drink the bar out of Tequila, it was obviously a headscratcher for the bartender who as trying to figure out what the hell we were all doing out there.
Morris had a big interest in Astronomy, I had an interest in weather. We used to bet each other on whether there would be a thunderstorm within the next 24 hours while on the road in the Summer in the US. The criteria was that there had to be at least one rumble of thunder or flash of lightning before midnight, we would bet $5 or $10 on it. I used to study radiosonde soundings, look for capping inversions and all that stuff, but Morris almost always won the bet. This really used to piss me off.
I have some very good memories of Morris, not just the gigs I played with him, but the conversations we had also. He was an interesting Guy and knew a lot of stuff about some quite esoteric subjects. He has left a big legacy of music out there, I will miss him a lot.